Good to hear that Rave is taking an interest in exhibition in L.A. I’ll have to walk down to the Beverly Center next week while I am on holiday break. I don’t think I have seen a film there since the mid-90’s.

We installed a digital projector in house #2 yesterday (the smaller of the two big houses upstairs with balcony seating). We’ll be playing Hurt Locker in DLP until Thursday night and then New Moon will be in DLP starting Friday.

This Friday, we’ll be opening Where the Wild Things Are in our main house (450+ seats, 40ft screen, balcony seating), Couples Retreat in Theatre 2 (275+ seats and balcony seating) and The Box (in our largest auditorium on the main floor). Plus we’ll be keeping some really great movies including Black Dynamite, which is an absolute must see.

For the Grove to not play all thee of those films would be a stretch… something tells me the site’s “Coming Soon” is a uniform image feed from the Rave server, given it looks just like the one on the Rave site. We’ll see in a matter of weeks, though.

Looking at the “Coming Attractions” on the website is interesting. If the graphic is right, they will be getting “Surrogates”, “Fame”, and “The Invention of Lying” on their respective release dates, meaning this could transform into a first-run site.

No mention of it on Rave’s site either – or on Rave Digital Media’s site, their answering machine doesn’t identify it as Rave either. Looks like they going stealth. (After all if they added it to their website they’d have to change the section where they brag about being 100% digital and 100% stadium seating). Make me wonder what other chains enter into management agreements and refuse to brand the site with their corporate identity. I know a few National Amusements sites that don’t carry the Showcase, Multiplex, or Cinema De Lux brands, but they don’t hide them and withhold the sites from their website.

By the way, with that type of fare, they are definitely not all-digital like true RMPs. “Whatever Works” and “Cold Souls” were not offered to exhibitors in DLP. And given there was no mention of “3D” by “Up”, I’d say it’s all still the same.

The neon green and orange, while entirely possible, would be downright hilarious. To try to modernize a property that’s so distinctly 80s…

Then again, much as I like a second-run programming alternative, I’d take the Burbank 8 for 80s vibes over this ‘plex any day, so they can butcher it all they want so long as the film presentation is good.

I could buy that they’re reupholstering the seats (or even installing new ones), but I don’t believe they’d install DLP in all the auditoriums. That’s a multi-million dollar investment in a property with no future. Then again, the place is now on MovieTickets.com WITH the Rave Motion Pictures header, which would imply a shift in the plan. So hey, maybe it will be DLP. Actually, second-run is about the only time I’d really champion DLP.

Looks like the opening is being delayed even further. Sounds like that there will be more than a few changes at the theatres (my best guess: they are installing digital projection in all auditoriums and doing some cosmetic changes as well).